Language, Thought, Relativism, Nationalism: An Interdisciplinary Study

Ms. Neumer and her team began their project with a critical analysis of the various theories of the relationship between language and thought. Their aim was to develop a theoretical position concerning the issue of universalism versus relativism. This issue is closely bound up with one of the main questions of the history of East and Central Europe, namely, the question of the nation, and the possibility of mutual understanding between national cultures. The team attempted to avoid falling into an all-too-common trap, that of allowing a political perspective to obscure the central theoretical issues. In a project whose outcome totalled over 1000 pages of manuscript in German, English and Hungarian, they touched on cognitive psychological, linguistic, semiotic, socio-semiotic, and other such themes. Their experience has convinced them of the fruitful heuristic possibilities of the interaction of scientific and philosophical approaches in this area of research. A preliminary analysis of the history of philosophy and inquiries into conceptual fields revealed that, in order to reach strong relativist conclusions concerning the unity of thought and language, it is required to take as a point of departure the widest possible sense of these concepts. But in fact, such an option ends up refuting itself: pursuing the premises to their final conclusion one arrives at the restriction of relativism. The team outlined a theory of the understanding of the Other which, borrowing from analytical as well as continental-hermeneutic trends, does not underestimate, on the one hand, the difficulties of understanding between various forms of life, cultures, and languages, but, on the other hand, can provide an alternative solution to the theory of incommensurabiltiy. Within the boundary of this problematic the team studied the problems of translatability, the acquisition of the mother and foreign languages, and natural or cultural determinacy of kind terms. The team regards its most original contribution to be the association of the problem of relativism-universalism and the language-thought relation with contemporary investigations into the question of orality, literacy, and secondary orality. Their conclusion was that, although certain connections can be revealed both between forms of communication and the thesis of the unity of language and thought, and between periods in the history of communication and the predominance of relativistic or universalistic tendencies, forms of communication do not unequivocally determine the answers to these questions.

Comparative Analysis of Russian and French Prosodies: Theoretical, Experimental and Applied Aspects"

Experience shows that in teaching the pronunciation of a foreign language, it is the native syllable stereotype that resists correction most strongly. This is because the syllable is the basic unit of the perception and production of speech, and syllabic production is highly automatic and to some degree determines the prosody of speech at all levels: accent, rhythm, phrase, etc. The results of psycho-physiological studies show that the human acoustic analyser is a typical contemplator organ and new acoustic qualities are perceived through their inclusion into the already existing system of values characteristic to the mother tongue. This results in the adaptation of the perception and so production of foreign speech to native patterns. The less conscious the perception of the unit and the more 'primitive' its status, the greater the degree of its auditory assimilation, and the syllable is certainly among the less controllable linguistic units. The group carried out a complex investigation of the French and Russian languages at the level of syllable realisation, focusing on the stressed syllable of both open and closed types. The useful acoustic characteristics of the French/Russian syllable pattern were determined through identifying a typical syllable pattern within the system of each of the two languages, comparing these patterns to establish their contrasting features, and observing and systematising deviations from the pattern typical of the French/Russian language teaching situation. The components of the syllable pattern shown to need particular attention in teaching French pronunciation to Russian native speakers were intensity, fundamental frequency, and duration. The group then developed a method of correction which combines the auditory and visual canals of sound signal perception and tested this method with groups of Russian students of different levels.